


Hate the Game

by SaltyStarChild (Charonte_Queen)



Series: Michael Guerin Week 2019 [3]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Maria DeLuca is a Protective Friend, Michael Guerin Week 2019, Michael and Liz are Science Buds, POV Outsider, additional tags to be added later, an old hookup comes back around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 17:11:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20727830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charonte_Queen/pseuds/SaltyStarChild
Summary: Jess hooks up with an interesting man while in Roswell, but he doesn't seem all that interested in dating. At least, not until she's visiting again and finds him stupidly in love with his boyfriend.or, one of Michael's old hookups is in town and is very confused about what happened to Mr. 'Dates-Limit-Options'





	Hate the Game

**Author's Note:**

> This was. SO MUCH FUN. to write. Honestly, it's one of my favorites, which surprised me because I didn't like the prompt all that much but then...then this was born. No regrets!

She’d been on a road trip with friends when she met him.

They’d decided to make one of their many stops be in Roswell, New Mexico. They jokingly told anyone who asked about their trip that they were going to look for the aliens that crashed there. At the first sign that said they were nearing Roswell, they’d laughed about each other’s varying willingness to have sex with an alien—Hannah had been a firm no, while Jess and Alyssa had both given an enthusiastic hell yes—which then sparked an argument of whether or not aliens would have compatible anatomy and space STDs.

Roswell leaned in to all the alien nonsense, which Hannah and Alyssa ate up. Hannah insisted on taking a picture with everything that referenced aliens. Jess had rolled her eyes good naturedly—the whole town referenced aliens; it was a lot of pictures, most of which should never be shown to anyone outside the three of them. But once the thrill of being a tourist started to die off, the town was rather _boring_.

Which was how the three of them found themselves in the town’s one non-alien-themed rundown bar where Jess met _him_.

He sat at the bar, talking to the bartender with a smirk and playful air. He had a magnetic presence about him; no matter how hard Jess tried not to stare, her eyes kept drifting back to him. Her friends had laughed at her when they noticed and dragged her to the bar where he sat.

“Ladies,” he greeted with a wink and a voice smoother than whiskey. The bartender rolled her eyes as she asked what they wanted to drink.

The more they drank that night, the bolder her friends grew until one of them—she isn’t sure which anymore, isn’t sure she ever knew which it was with how much alcohol was in her system at the time—quite literally shoved her into his arms.

It hadn’t been long after that that she found herself making out with the man in a corner of the bar until the bartender shooed them off with terse words and serious threats. She doesn’t remember stumbling to her hotel room with him, only vaguely remembered the mind-blowing sex and that she didn’t even have to fake an orgasm like with her past hookups. He was gone by the time she woke up the next morning. Apparently, he’d been gone by the time her friends returned to the room at three in the morning.

Even though it was just a hookup, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

Her friends suggested going to the cutesy diner in town for breakfast and a pick-me-up before hitting the road again. Of all places, she really didn’t think she’d find him there, at the counter with a coffee and flirting with the waitress. She tried to shake off his presence—_just a hookup, just a hookup, just a hookup, jeez Jess, get it together_—but, as it had been in the bar last night, her eyes kept drifting back to him.

She decided to be bold. She went up to the counter, asked to borrow a pen, and wrote her name and number on a napkin before handing it to the man—_what had he said his name was? Mitchell? No, Michael_—with a lingering kiss to the cheek.

“You should _definitely_ call me,” she said with enough suggestion that the waitress he had been flirting with seemed much more put off. “Wouldn’t even mind coming back to Roswell for a date.”

His smirk slipped a little, a strange melancholy entering his eyes, but it’s gone just as quickly as she’d spotted it.

“Sorry, sweetheart, but I don’t do _dates_,” he said. The way he said ‘dates’ resonated with her—a strange combination of wariness and longing masked by condescension. “Dates just limit your options.”

She told him to keep it anyway, just in case he ever changed his mind on dates.

He didn’t call.

\--//--

They hook up two more times: once while she was in Albuquerque visiting her sister about a year after the road trip. She’d driven off in a fit after they’d fought. She’d found herself in Roswell by the time she’d calmed down, so she made the most of being there and found him in the bar.

She’d managed to wake up before he snuck out, asked him if his opinion on dating had changed. He didn’t look at her as he tied up his shoes and simply said that it hadn’t. It put a bit of a damper on the morning after pleasantness.

The second time was two years later while she was accompanied by her sister and nephew. Her nephew had recently become obsessed with aliens and Jess had made the mistake of mentioning the UFO museum she remembered visiting in Roswell. It had her nephew begging for a trip; neither of them had the heart to say no to the excited five-year-old. When they exited the museum, it was pure coincidence that they ran into him.

Her sister eyed the two of them for a few seconds before making a graceless exit and flimsy excuse. An hour after, she received a text from her saying she paid for a hotel room for her. She’d snorted, showed the cowboy the text, and the two proceeded to get absolutely hammered. He was still asleep in the hotel bed when she woke, and had started to stir by the time she’d exited the bathroom after a shower. He’d given her a sleepy smirk.

“You wanna get breakfast with me?” she’d asked, hoping his answer wouldn’t be what she was expecting.

“Nah, you know I don’t do dating,” he’d answered, almost like he was reading the line from a script. She frowned, heart falling to the bottom of her stomach.

_Fine, that was fine. It was whatever,_ she told herself. _Who cares? It’s just a hookup._

\--//--

About five years after her first ever visit to Roswell, Jess found herself in the town again. She, Alyssa, Hannah, and Hannah’s fiancé Rachel were reliving their road trip in leu of a bachelorette party because Hannah preferred simple and quiet. Rachel’s friends and many cousins were throwing a much livelier party for them about a month before the wedding. Hannah had practically begged for the trip.

They were staying for a few days this time though. Rachel had found out that an up-and-coming scientist in her field lived here and she wanted to get her thoughts on some project that Jess didn’t understand. Which was fine.

Well, _had been_ fine.

The first person she saw once they entered the same bar from years ago was_ him_. Presence as magnetic as ever, smirk wide and teasing—like the town had been placed on pause until she came back.

“Damn, he’s still hot,” Alyssa whistled low next to her. “Gonna hit it again? Then we’d really be reliving that trip.”

She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her. Her sex life _had_ hit a dry patch in recent months; she certainly wouldn’t turn down the opportunity. But—

“We’ll see how drunk I get first.”

It’s only three shots in and she’s just starting to feel the warm thrum of alcohol beneath her skin when she decides she needs to say or do something to him before she went insane. Hannah and Rachel were dancing, and Alyssa wasn’t paying attention to her, so there was no one to laugh or call her a lightweight when she made her way towards him.

She was starting to have some serious déjà vu. Was this even the same exact seat he’d been in years ago? About halfway, however, she stopped in her tracks as another man reached him first, took the seat beside him, and leaned in to share a quick, sweet kiss. Detouring, she kept an eye on them under the guise of getting another round of shots.

The bartender was giving her a strange, almost accusatory, look. Jess realized she’d been caught staring.

“Is there gonna be problem tonight?” she asked Jess tightly.

“I’m—I’m sorry?”

The bartender raised an eyebrow at her before gesturing towards the men at the other end of the bar. Realization washed over her with the same sharpness as a bucket of ice water.

“Oh! No, no, I’m—I’m actually here celebrating my friend’s engagement to another woman, so, uh, yeah. Not—no, there won’t be any issues from me,” Jess squeaked out. The bartender had a very intense gaze that made Jess nervous. It was as if she could see right through her, knew her every thought, every feeling. She was not a fan.

“Good,” the bartender said eventually after another minute of scrutinizing. She walked away without taking the refill order, but she must have a very good memory because she brings over four fresh shots of what they’d been having so far without so much as another word.

“Uh, th-thank you!” Jess calls after her when she’s immediately called by another customer.

Jess brings the shots back to the group’s table, downs two, and keeps one eye on—she knows his name, damnit, why couldn’t she think of it? M…M…—the men who are as close as they could get to each other without one of them potentially being in the other’s lap. They both have a teasing, mischievous look about them as they talk.

_He already has a hookup tonight_, she thinks to herself, _that’s okay. It’s just a hookup._

She doesn’t know why she’s so hung up on it when she loses sight of them once it gets more crowded and can’t find them again. Nearly five years had passed since she drunkenly brought him to her hotel room. They’d had sex _once_ and that'd been all it took; he’d been stuck in the back of her head since, presence reinforced by each following hookup. She didn’t understand why.

Was it because he said he wasn’t the dating type and she wanted to date him anyway? Was it because no sex she’d had afterwards quite compared to the level of mind-blowing being with him had been? Was she simply just…curious?

She shouldn’t even care.

\--//--

Day Two in Roswell is dedicated to Rachel’s science expedition. Well, it will be, after breakfast at the cutesy diner—the Crashdown. It was a neat little place with a menu full of names that made her roll her eyes and giggle, and the waitstaff all wore antennae on their heads. It was just the right amount of kitschy and cute to be endearing rather than too over-the-top.

Their waitress had walked off with their order, giving Jess the perfect view of the door opening and Michael—_finally_, she remembered his name. She knew it started with an M—holding it for the man he’d been with at the bar last night. Seeing the smiles on their faces twisted her stomach in an odd mix of confusion and jealousy. She watched them make their way to the bar stools at the counter, watched the other man order for the both of them, watched as they were brought their food and started to pick off each other’s plates.

“That was way too fast,” she muttered to herself.

“What was?”

Jess tore her eyes away from the men and back to her friends. She tried to fight the blush she knew was climbing up her neck in patches.

“Oh, uh,” she stumbled, shyly pointing out the two she’d been watching. “Them, they got their food, like, five seconds after they ordered. Way too fast.”

“Maybe they called ahead?” Hannah suggested. Alyssa hummed thoughtfully, eyes on the men’s backs.

“Or maybe they’re just regular customers, who come ‘round at the same time every day and get the same thing every time,” Alyssa said, voice low and teasing like she was telling a ghost story. That thought didn’t sit well with Jess, not at all. “Hey, Jess isn’t that the guy—”

“Yup,” she answered tightly.

“But didn’t you say that he told you—”

“Yup,” her voice strained a little as the confusion, jealousy, and a bit of irrational anger grew.

They were saved from anymore awkward conversation about Michael and his _date_—because that’s what the other man was, wasn’t he? A date. The goddamn date of Mr. It-Limits-Your-Options—by a new group coming in the diner, large and loud with flashing phones as they took pictures of the décor. The tourists remained just as loud once they were seated a table over from where Jess and her friends sat.

Looking at each other as the tourists grew progressively louder, there was an unspoken agreement to eat quickly and pay as quickly as possible.

\--//--

Jess didn’t see Michael or his date when they left the diner—the Crashdown seemed a little understaffed and the noisy tour group had kept their waitress rather occupied while she tried to deliver their bill. It had certainly started the day off on the wrong foot.

Rachel wasn’t deterred by the rough start though. In fact, her enthusiasm seemed to grow the closer they got to wherever it was they were going…which was apparently the hospital?

“Uh, is this really where this scientist of yours is?” Jess asked.

“I triple-checked, so I’m fairly certain,” Rachel said through a wide smile. “The hospital building also houses a handful of science labs dedicated to the kind of research Elizabeth and I do.”

“If you say so.”

They followed Rachel up to the front desk, stood patiently as the tired-looking woman behind the desk called to ask if Ms. Ortecho was available and willing to meet with some visitors. They must’ve gotten an approval from the person on the other end—presumably Elizabeth Ortecho—because the woman wrote down a room number and pointed them down a hall without another word. Rachel was buzzing as she walked twice as fast as the rest of them.

She was practically jumping in front of a door while she waited on them to catch up, knuckles rapping against the door as soon as they did. Sounds of things being shuffled around and drawers closing on the other side preceded the door flying inward to reveal a slightly disheveled looking woman. Dark hair was swept up into a rough ponytail, a handful of strands having come loose and started frizzing, and red lipstick was slightly smeared at the corner of the mouth as if she’d been worrying at it.

“Hi,” she smiled, a little breathless as she gestured for them to come in. “I’m Liz. What can I do for you?”

“Dr. Rachel Mendoza, hi, big fan of what I’ve seen of your work,” Rachel rattled off, shaking Liz’s hand with an outrageous amount of enthusiasm. “I was hoping I could get your thoughts on a project I’m working on? My team and I seem to have hit a rough patch, and I thought fresh eyes, and then I heard you were in Roswell now and Roswell was a stop on our road trip so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!”

For Liz’s credit, she didn’t seem thrown by Hurricane Rachel. She even managed to look over a bunch of papers Rachel had brought while listening to the woman ramble and asking questions. Alyssa quickly plopped herself down in a chair and pulled out her phone while Hannah simply watched Rachel with the amount of love and fondness couples in love tended to have. Jess settled for looking around the lab space and trying to find something interesting that she could understand. Science went completely over her head, which is why she’d pursued a degree in Public and Professional Writing.

She must’ve zoned out eventually however as she was drawn out of her reverie by the door opening and in walking—

Michael the cowboy, of all fucking people. _Great_.

“Hey, Liz, I—uh,” Michael came to a stop. The door shut behind him, the only sound in the silence.

“Omigod, I totally forgot I asked you to swing by today,” Liz muttered as she looked up from the papers she and Rachel had started spreading out. “But this is still good! Come over here, look at this, and tell me what you think.”

Michael eyed them, eyes widening a little as he recognized Jess but giving no other indication that he knew her as he walked over to Liz. Leaning over the papers, he scanned them for no more than a minute before he was asking for a blank piece of paper and a pencil. The words that came out of his mouth as he wrote was nonsense to her, but it made Liz groan and complain because _of course, that’s so obvious_ and had Rachel staring at him like he was made of gold.

He handed to paper to Rachel, who took it reverently.

“Holy shit, omigod, thank you so much,” she said, words running together as her brain worked faster than her mouth. “How come I’ve never heard of _you_? Where’d you go to school? Where can I read more of your work, because this is just. Wow.”

“I, uh,” Michael shuffled his feet, eyes downcast, “I didn’t go to university.”

“Huh? What?” Rachel exclaimed, floored. Jess just watched as Rachel pushed her way into his space. “Why not? You’re a _genius_!”

“Some…family issues came up, followed by a long line of bad decisions,” Michael mumbled. Jess tried not to be hurt when his eyes flicked over to her when he’d said _bad decisions_. “My boyfriend’s convinced me to start taking a couple online courses though, so we’ll see how that goes.”

Rachel nodded without sympathy like she was simply reading a report of facts that was of no consequence to anyone.

“My family wasn’t exactly throwing a pride parade when I told them I was gay either. It can be a hard blow to a teenager,” she said.

“Oh, I’m not gay,” Michael said simply. “I’m bisexual. And, uh, it was a different issue, but yeah. For a while, my brother just thought I was gay and trying really hard to pass as straight.”

“Wait, seriously?” Liz chimed in, her eyes particularly gleeful. Michael only nodded. “Does Alex know?”

“I’m pretty sure Alex sent him links to a bunch of things about sexualities other than gay and straight, but neither have confirmed or denied. Yet. I’ll get one of them to break eventually.”

“You know it won’t be Alex.”

“Exactly, which is why you’re my inside man, Ortecho. You’ve had Maxie wrapped around your finger since high school!”

“As if Alex hasn’t had you wrapped around his for just as long?”

“He’s had me wrapped around more than just—”

“I do _not_ need to hear the rest of that sentence!”

Michael huffed a laugh before seeming to remember that there were others in the room. He cleared his throat and adjusted the cowboy hat on his head.

“Well, since you seem to have your hands full, I’ll come back some time after lunch,” he told her lightly. Rachel scribbled something on a piece of paper and shoved it into his hand.

“That’s my work email. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d really like to read about your work, and if you ever need another set of eyes I would love to get the chance to work with you,” Rachel said, smile wide and only slightly manic. Michael seemed to soften, almost embarrassed.

“Thanks, that…means a lot, actually,” he said, voice quiet. “It, uh, was nice to meet you. And good luck on that project! I’ll be expecting to hear all about it from Lizzie later.”

He nodded at the rest of them then makes a quick exit. Alyssa and Hannah are looking at Jess wide eyed and knowing whereas Rachel is blissfully oblivious entangled in the science around her. Jess looked between them all as she shakes off her shock. She _needed_ to catch him before he’s out of the building and talk to him.

Loudly, she announced that she needs to use the bathroom and hurries out before anyone can question or join her.

She spotted his back as he turns a corner. It’s all she needed before she’s walking as fast as she can without looking like a crazy person. Once she’s close enough that she’s sure he’ll be able to hear her, she calls:

“Michael! Wait!”

She watched the way his shoulders tense, raising just slightly, as he comes to a stop and turns on his heel.

“Hey, uh,” Michael drawls, seeming uncomfortable for the first time in the history of their limited interaction. From that history, she’d gathered that he was pretty open and rather shameless; definitely not someone who was easily made uncomfortable. “Knew I recognized you.”

“Jess. My name is Jess,” she said, only slightly irritated. She couldn’t be too upset, not when she hadn’t remembered his name until this morning. “What happened to ‘dates just limit your options’?”

He grimaced, one hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Right, that,” he muttered. “Look, I was a jackass and I know that, I gave that excuse to anyone who wanted more than the sex…but.”

“But…?” she implored when he seemed to struggle to find the words he was looking for.

“Alex is…different? He’s—we’ve got—a really complicated, fucked up history. I was in love with him—still am—and I guess it just felt unfair, like betrayal or somethin’ even though we weren’t together at the time. That make any sense?”

Jess pursed her lips, that mix of jealousy and anger and confusion still roiling in her gut but slowly quieting. She nodded at him and sighed.

“Yeah, I guess it does,” she told him, smiling ruefully. “Alex is a pretty lucky guy.”

His eyes fill with that fondness and love that she saw in Hannah earlier and Jess feels that jealousy and anger soothed further.

“Trust me,” he said, sounding as blissful as he did playful. “I’m the lucky one.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, my tumblr is @salty-star-child. Come scream at me about things, see what I find funny, check out what other fandoms I'm in, or just completely ignore it.
> 
> Until next time, loves!


End file.
